Balch Springs adopts $30 million fiscal 2026 budget, keeps tax rate; council restores several frontline positions

The Balch Springs City Council adopted the fiscal year 2025-26 budget and formally approved a tax rate of 0.794629 per $100 valuation on Sept. 8, 2025, after a public hearing and debate over personnel and service priorities.

City Manager Fenner presented revised figures showing the general fund deficit had been reduced from roughly $2.6 million in the initial draft to a much smaller shortfall after staff cuts and adjustments. "The initial budget that we went over at the budget workshop, we were 2,600,000.0 over, so we had to reduce a lot of things," a staff member said during the presentation.

Why it matters: the council kept the city's effective tax rate unchanged while approving a budget that restores code enforcement, animal control and inspector positions that staff had earlier proposed to remove. Councilmembers said the changes reflected a priority on essential services while keeping the city's tax levy steady.

Council debate focused on personnel and how to cover ongoing costs. Council members repeatedly raised the trade-offs between adding an assistant…